I pose this question because I notice that every time I go to yoga, I free myself from a physical circumstance I once described as a disability.

Not only did I describe my coordination uniqueness as a disability, I believed to my core that I was a VICTIM of my disability. To me my physical disability was an unchangeable FACT, just like there’s sky above my head.

It’s very human to believe that we are the victims of our limitations or circumstances because they can seem so permanent and insurmountable. However, it is our BELIEF that our limitations are permanent that holds us captive, not the circumstances themselves.

No government or judge or prison guard can set us free from circumstances that we determine that we are captive to.

Yet with every prison cell, comes a key to open it.

A person is not obligated to find the key to his or her freedom. I was living a fine and productive life when I was certain that I was disabled.

At the same time finding the key (or more likely keys) that free us from our limitations can be an amazing adventure.

Game of the Day

How are you finding the keys to your freedom?

Jason Freeman is a professional writer, and a one-of-a-kind public speaker. He is the founder and CEO of Heroic Yes! Productions. Jason has an MFA in Poetry from the University of Nebraska. He knows the pain of perceiving one’s life through a lens of limitation and also the thrill of moving beyond that mindset. For more information on Jason’s powerful message, or to book him to present to your organization, go to www.HeroicYesProductions.com.

When we talk with people we have never met on the phone, we naturally observe their voice and make assumptions about them based on their voice. I speak in a unique way, which is often called a speech impediment. People naturally make assumptions based on the sound of my voice and I can understand how easy that is to do. I know that if I had never met myself and heard the sound of my voice on the phone, I would probably also make mistaken assumptions about my intellect and ability to function in the world.

Gentle ways exist of showing people that the assumptions they make about us aren’t true. For example, since I realize that people I have just met might naturally make assumptions about me based on my speech, I take care to converse with them in an intelligent manner.

They then know by the content of what I bring to our conversation that their assumptions are not accurate. On other occasions, I just say at the beginning of our conversation that my speech is unique and if they have any problem understanding me to ask for clarification.

What mistaken assumptions do people commonly make about you upon first meeting you? What would be some gentle ways of showing them that these assumptions are not accurate?

Far more important even than the mistaken assumptions other people make about us are the mistaken assumptions we make about the nature of our own limitations. For example, at different points in my life, I assumed that because of coordination issues, I could not write more than a few sentences longhand, wash dishes or do yoga. Now I fill up notebooks with my writings and often go to yoga class six or seven times a week.

And I discovered that I’m a pro at washing dishes. OK, I admit it, sometimes I let them pile-up before I take responsibility for washing them. But eventually I get the job done

What mistaken assumptions have you made about yourself in the past and since disproven?

These reflections make me curious about the mistaken assumptions we believe about ourselves that we still hold as accurate. These are the assumptions that make us say, I can’t, as if it is the cold hard truth, when in fact it could just be a misunderstanding of ourselves.

From a lifetime of experience with a so-called speech impediment, I know that there can be a great deal of room for misunderstanding. We especially have a tendency to misunderstand what we are truly capable of. It often takes patience and courage to get past our misunderstandings of ourselves. The reward is once we get past these misunderstandings, we are freer to live a confident life and pursue our dreams.

Game of the Day

When you listen to yourself and look at your life, what assumptions do you make about your limits?

How would your life be different if you had the confidence that these were mistaken assumptions and not accurate?

Our world knows the darkness of limitations. In the eighties, it seemed like the Nuclear Arms Race and the Cold War would go on forever. No solution was in sight. Then in 1989 the Berlin Wall came down.

Famous people know the darkness of limitations. Nelson Mandela was a political prisoner in South Africa for 27 years. Then he was released and later served a successful term as president of the land in which he was formerly imprisoned.

At some point in our lives we each know the darkness of limitations.

When contemplating some of my dreams that seem like they will never come into reality, a song by Joe Nichols inspires me. Some of the lyrics of his song The Impossible go like this,

“Unbreakable walls break,

Sometimes the things you think would never happen

happen just like that.

Unbendable steel bends

If the fury of the wind is unstoppable

I’ve learned to never underestimate

the impossible.”

Game of the Day

What do you want to achieve in your life that seems impossible at this moment?

What support could you from others as you go about achieving the impossible?

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